Saturday, November 11, 2017

Fred Cole, George Young, Fats Domino & Shows # 691, 692, 693

We lost the following three musicians recently. All are different in their own way and left their imprint on rock music in different forms. Each of the three episodes of Revolution Rock included in this post features music from these artists in some way. They can be downloaded in the link after the playlists at the end of this post.

Fred Cole (Lollipop Shoppe, Dead Moon, Pierced Arrows):

Fred Cole was born in Tacoma, Washington, but lived in Las Vegas, Nevada while growing up. He began his career in music at a very young age playing with a band in Vegas called The Lords. They released a single in 1964, before Deep Soul Cole, his next band, released a single in 1965. The Weeds, formed in 1966. The band attempted to drive to the Canadian border in order to avoid the draft, but didn’t make it that far. Rumoured to run out of funds and or gas, the band found themselves in Portland, Oregon. It was here where the band gained a following and after signing to Uni Records, changed their name to The Lollipop Shoppe. The band recorded one album, Just Color and released their now well-known 1968 single, “You Must Be A Witch”. It was also here, where Cole met his future wife and band mate, Kathleen “Toody” Connor. After the Lollipop Shoppe disbanded in 1969, and The Weeds released one more single in 1971, Cole and his wife headed for Alaska to raise their children.

Cole re-emerged to form the hard rock band Zipper, who released an album on his and Toody’s label Whizeagle in 1975. Cole then formed and released music by a variety of other bands such as King Bee, The Rats, the country band Western Front, The Range Rats and Dead Moon. It was with the band Dead Moon, in which Toody played bass and Andrew Loomis played drums that Cole’s music would gain a devout cult following. Known as a garage punk band, Dead moon blended elements of garage, punk and country into their stripped down sound. They released ten full-length albums, not counting singles, live albums and compilations and lasted from 1987-2006. Many of the band’s early recordings were engineered and released on Fred and Toody’s own label, Tombstone Records. Their early recordings were mastered by Cole himself on a mono lathe that was originally used to cut The Kingsmen’s “Louie, Louie” in 1963.

Cole and Toody then formed The Pierced Arrows with Kelly Haliburton on drums and released two albums in 2008 and 2010. Recently, Cole and Toody had been performing acoustically. Fred Cole passed away at the age of 69 in November 2017 due to cancer. The music that he created spanned decades, and while it wasn’t a mainstream success, it is beloved amongst underground music communities in the US and Europe. When Dead Moon split up in 2006, Cole provided this quote which emphasizes the effect his music had on underground, DIY music communities and in general: "It's been a journey we will always treasure and feel that a worldwide family has emerged in its place".

George Young (Australian Easybeat, producer and songwriter):

At the end of October of this year, George Young passed away. An important figure in the Australian music history, George’s journey into the music world began in 1963 when he met future band mate and collaborator Harry Vanda at the VIllawood Migrant Hostel in Sydney, Australia. Young’s family, just relocated from Glasgow, Scotland at the time. George Young and Harry Vanda would be part of the Australian garage rock band, The Easybeats, who were Australia’s answer to The Beatles. Along with Stevie Wright (vocals), Dick Diamonde (bass) and Snowy Fleet (drums), the band had singles like “She’s So Fine”, “Sorry” and “Friday On My Mind” were charting hits in Australia, while “Friday On My Mind” was a hit in the US as well. Along with the Bee Gees, The Easybeats were among the first Australian artists to have international success. They split in 1969, Young and Vanda would then enter the production world writing songs for other musicians and taking on more of a producing role in music.

George Young and Harry Vanda relocated to London, England shortly after this and in addition to producing and writing songs for others and bands including themselves, they also produced music for George Alexander. His real name was Alexander Young, George Young's eldest brother, and when the Young family relocated to Australia in 1963, Alex stayed in London to pursue music. Signed to The Beatles, Apple Music Publishing Inc. label, Alexander was in the psychedelic rock band Grapefruit. They released two albums and some singles. After Grapefruit had broken up, Alexander joined Vanda/Young and collaborated on a series of releases under different band names and on one final Grapefruit single in 1971 titled “Universal Party/Sha Sha”. George and Harry returned to Australia in 1973 and formed Flash And The Pan in 1976, a synthpop band who had their share of hits from the mid 70s to the 90s.

In addition to their own musical efforts and in the production role, Young also had a big role in a band that featured his two younger brothers, Angus and Malcolm Young. The two would be a part of the band AC/DC and their first five albums were produced by George Young and Harry Vanda. It was George Young’s suggestion to have Bon Scott join the group as their singer, after Dave Evans exited the group. Scott’s previous band The Valentines had released some singles in the 60s that were written by Vanda/Young. In addition to this, George played bass on some of their early recordings and even filled in on bass for live gigs for the band in their early days. George Young retired from the music industry in the 90s, but would produced AC/DC’s 2000 album, Stiff Upper Lip on his own. George Young often refused interviews later in his life, but the imprint he left on music is vast. He helped shape and change Australian music and let the music do the talking.

Fats Domino (New Orleans Rock and Roll Music Pioneer and Icon):

Fats Domino was born Antoine Dominique Domino Jr in 1928 in New Orleans, Louisiana. He was one of the pioneering musicians in rock and roll music and has sold over 65 million records. By the age of 14, Domino was performing in bars in New Orleans. In 1947, he was invited to a backyard barbecue by New Orleans bandleader Billy Diamond. Domino was then asked to join his band, The Solid Senders where he was said to have earned $3 a week to play piano with them. He also earned the nickname “Fats” by Diamond because Domino reminded him of pianists Fats Waller and Fats Pichon. He was signed to Imperial Records in 1949 where instead of being paid a for each song he recorded, he would be paid in royalties based on sales for the songs he recorded. Joining up with producer and co-songwriter Dave Bartholomew, they wrote the song “Fat Man” which was based on a version of the song “Junker Blues”. The song featured Domino’s unique, rolling piano style, combined with his vocals over a strong backbeat. The result was what is widely considered the first successful rock and roll single. It sold a million copies.

What followed next was a string of successful singles, often both the A-side and B-side would chart. In 1955, “Ain’t That A Shame” became his first crossover pop hit, it charted on the Billboard pop singles charts. His biggest hit proved to be “Blueberry Hill”, a song written in the 1940s by Vincent Rose, Larry Stock and Al Lewis. It reached number two on top 40 Billboard charts where it stayed for two weeks and number one on the R&B singles charts where it stayed for eight weeks. Some of his other well-known songs include “I’m Walkin’”, “Blue Monday” and “Walking To New Orleans”. Fats hit streak came to an end in 1964 as the British Invasion took over. Domino continued to record until the 1970s. He left his record label in 1963 for ABC-Paramount Records. Imperial Records was sold in 1963 to Liberty Records. Fats famously said in a 1979 interview that “I stuck with them until they sold out”. 40 of the songs that he recorded for Imperial charted in the top 10 of the R&B charts of the day and 11 of them cracked the top ten in the pop charts. Fats continued to tour until 1995. He would intermittently make appearances in the time after this, but rarely ventured out to perform in public. His last public appearance was on May 19th, 2007 in New Orleans. The concert was filmed and played on TV as Fats Domino: Walkin’ Back To New Orleans. A documentary entitled Fats Domino and the Birth of Rock ‘n’ Roll premiered on PBS in 2016.

Fats Domino was an icon and pioneer in rock and roll music alongside others, such as Chuck Berry and Little Richard. He sold more records than any other 50s era rock musician, with the exception of Elvis Presley and his music contained an undeniable rhythm and groove. Dr. John had this to say of Fats Domino back in 2010 for Rolling Stone Magazine: “Anytime anybody plays a slow blues, the piano player will eventually get to something like Fats. I can't tell you the number of times I played sessions and was asked specifically to do Fats. That innocence is there in his music. He's a good man, and people respond to that goodness. I don't think it was about anything other than the tradition of working the house and what felt good to Fats."

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About The Show

Revolution Rock is an award winning radio program on CJAM FM that first began broadcasting on CJAM’s airwaves in the late night hours of June 2004. Revolution Rock focuses on 60s garage rock, 70s punk/new wave, surf, alternative, indie and new/old music within those genres. Currently the show can be heard Saturday's from 7-9 PM on CJAM 99.1 FM (in the Windsor/Detroit area) and streamed online at cjam.ca. This is an informative blog that provides band profiles, download links to the radio show, playlists and more.

About Me

I am the host of the Revolution Rock radio program on CJAM 99.1 FM (Windsor/Detroit), freelance blogger/writer, musician and film maker.
Download links to my show are provided by the the CJAM website and can be found at the bottom of each play list on this blog and can also be subscribed to as a podcast.